Pender's Blog by Lee Pender, RCPU Editor

Happy New Year!

We're going to start this newsletter with a bit of fluff, so get ready. First off, we offer our thanks again to the amazing Scott Bekker for filling in for your editor last week. It has been a long three weeks since your editor last clacked at the keyboard writing this newsletter, so hopefully you'll forgive him if he welcomes himself back to your inbox (and laptop screen) Brooklyn-style.

Your editor spent some of his time off in Arizona, following his beloved TCU Horned Frogs to the Fiesta Bowl. Alas, we lost (congratulations, Boise State), but Arizona turned out to be a fantastic winter getaway -- and the pregame tailgating was terrific, which helped ease the pain of the game itself.

Anyway, next time you're in sunny Scottsdale, be sure to check out a new restaurant called 5th and Wine. Your editor received no -- absolutely zero -- compensation for saying this, but RCPU highly recommends this new restaurant and wine bar. Your editor and his wife stumbled in at 10:30 on a Tuesday night and, despite the fact that the restaurant closed at 11, we received top-flight service and consumed tremendously good food and wine. The atmosphere is fantastic, and the place is brand-new. So check it out next time you take a trip to the Valley of the Sun, which is an entirely sensible destination for those of us who live in colder climes. Yes, we still kind of miss being there.